The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1887-10-26
The Fate of Nancy Barton.

We were riding over the Portland &
Ogdensburg railroad, coming down
from Lancaster to Conway, n. H.,
when few miles below the Notch of
the White Mountains a passenger sit
ting in front, pointing to an eminence
at the left hand, its summit crowned
with a small cluster of trees, said,
"That is Nancy's Hill" A young
woman, they say, was frozen to death
over there many years ago. | never
heard the whole story, but | believe
her lover deserted her and she became
sort of demented and wandered away
and got lost"
Nancy's Hill. The name and the in
cident | had heard given in connection
with it haunted me, and on the veran-
dab of the Kearsarge House that night
/ Intercepted a stranger, who seemed
to be resident, as to the true version
of the legend. Fortunately he knew
the whole story, and, sitting there
in the twilight, / listened TO one
of the most affecting episodes of early
New Hampshire history, l give the
story very nearly as | heard it and in
his own language. He said:
Among the first settlers of Dart
mouth, now Jefferson, in the White
Mountain region, was Colonel Joseph
Whipple. He was brother of General
William Whipple, one of the signers of
the Declaration of Independence from
New Hampshire, and was formerly of
Portsmouth. The colonel was a man
of wealth and influence and lived in
great style for those days. He owned
four slaves and employed half dozen
other hands on his large farm, besides
two female domestics in the house.
" 1t was in 1913 that Colonel Whip
pie settled at jefferson. The country
around was then nearly an unbroken
forest. At Lancaster, on the Con-
necticut, there was a little settlement,
and at Bartlett, this side of the Notch,
there was another infant hamlet. In
the route from Portsmouth the settlers
of those northern townships followed
the valley of the Saco up through the
gap of the mountains. The pass through
the Notch was discovered by John
Nash, famous hunter of the region,
long before the settlement of any of
these towns, and he used to make that
hill resting-place. On its highest
point he had drawn together the thick
boughs and the tops of the smaller
trees, so as to provide a temporary
shelter. Subsequently the spot was a
common halting-place for emigrants on
their way to the upper townships.
There was not house between
Jefferson and Bartlett, distance of
thirty miles, and the way through the
wild woods was only a foot-path marked
by the blazing of the trees. Along this
rude road Colonel Whipple conveyed
his family, household goods and effects
on the backs of horses, of which he
owned dozen strong working beasts.
Their first house was log cabin,
but in the second summer the colonel,
who owned saw-mill, put up frame
house. 1t was large, square structure,
with a wing, two stories high, built
strongly and with high windows that
were barred with heavy shutters. In
the second story there were loop-holes,
such as were made in many of the
dwelling-houses of former period.
Whipple had them made so that the
house could be defended against any
attacks by Indians or white men, as he
had valuable property stored away in
plate, and silks and broadcloths and
Spanish coin, for he had been mer-
chant before he emigrated to jefferson
and had got rich in the East India trade.
" AS | have said, two domestics
assisted Mrs. Whipple in the house.
One of these was Nancy Barton. She
was young woman of respectable con-
nections, and is said to have been very
good-looking. She had been in the
colonel's employ from her girlhood
and had saved quite little stock of
money, the hard earnings of several
years of industry.
Nancy was a great favorite with
the colonel and very much liked by the
family. She was girl of great excel
lence of character and more than av-
erage intelligence. On one occasion
by her wit and bravery she saved the
whole family from being carried captive
to Canada.
According to the best of my recol.
lection it was some time during the
revolution, in IT'S or 70. There had
been more or less trouble with the In
dams in the Coos region. A white
man by the name of Stephen Wiggin
WIN pay GU luC pau VI plluph blltl VI
a small scale, was sort of instigatol
among them. This man had once beer
in the employ of Colonel Whipple, bu
had been dismissed for drunkenness
That was long before the days of The
Washingtonian or Reform Club move
ments, and even the parsons had theil
grog, but the colonel was temperate
man, and did not countenance the ust
of liquor by any of his help. WiggiI
was angry because of his dismissal anC
swore to be avenged. OF course Whip
pie didn't pay much attention to hi
threat, and after a time forgot al
about it.
"But Wiggin did not forget. HI
went among the Indians, and on
spring night, at the head of band o
painted savages, swo0ped down upol
the mansion like a hawk upon broo'
of chickens. The colonel, wholly un
suspicious of danger, was asleep in
lower room, with one of the window
open. Wiggin and the savages crep
into this window and seized their vic
tim before he was fairly awake. The,